Individualized healthcare management system

Abstract

Method and system for providing individualized healthcare to a patient having a chronic disease over the Internet are disclosed. The system includes at least a computer server for executing application programs where the computer server includes storage means for storing patient information in at least a database server and means for communicating with at least a patient computer and a medical provider computer. The system further includes means for providing individualized web pages for interacting with the patient, means for monitoring signs and symptoms of the chronic disease using inputs provided by the patient, and means for administrating an individualized treatment of the chronic disease according to the signs and symptoms provided by the patient.

Description

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60 / 581,755, “Individualized Healthcare Management System” filed Jun. 21, 2004; which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. This application is related to the patent application entitled “System and Method for Assisting a Care Partner in Monitoring a Patient with Chronic Disease”, attorney docket number 59559-2000200, which is filed on the same date as this application and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0002] The present invention relates to the field of healthcare management. In particular, the present invention relates to an individualized healthcare management system. BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION [0003] Telemedicine refers to the practice of medicine in which the patient and provider are in different locations and communicate electronically. Today, telemedicine usually refers to the use of a telecommunicati...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0005] Disclosed is an individualized healthcare management system that integrates monitoring of the patient's clinical status with tailored education, individualized action plans, and behavioral modification. The system integrates various healthcare functional components into a single telemedicine package in order to: 1) monitor signs and symptoms of the disease; 2) monitor medication compliance and adverse reactions; 3) display relevant clinical data from legacy systems; 4) provide interactive, individualized patient education on the disease process and treatment; 5) enable care partner support and participation; 6) generate automatic alerts to providers when certain monitoring or compliance criteria indicate that a patient needs help; and 7) provide multiple communication methods between provider and patient that not only give clinicians opportunities to intervene before a health problem becomes a health crisis; they also give patients opportunities to work out self-management strategies to effectively deal with triggers, early warning signs, and symptoms. In addition, the system includes the ability to customize the web site content to the disease or condition, as well as to the needs of the individual patient. The system is adaptive to the patient's increased knowledge of the disease, his own health condition, and his behavior. As the patient becomes aware of a new symptom, early warning sign, helpful response, or harmful response and enters such information into the system, his personal profiles, action plans, and vital signs for regular monitoring are automatically updated to reflect the new knowledge the patient has acquired. By combining the above features into a single telemedicine system accessible from home, patients may benefit from the value of the individualized management and education about their condition. Similarly, providers may benefit from the system both as a resource for providing education to their patients, and as a clinical tool for monitoring the patients' health status and delivering treatments to the patients.

Problems solved by technology

While most visionaries would agree that telemedicine will play a major role in the delivery of health care in the 21st century, the adoption of telemedicine continues to be a slow process.

Such telemedicine models lack individual patient participation and do not foster patients' continued reliance on receiving treatment and managing their chronic diseases.

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